What is a cookie?

A cookie is a small piece of data that is downloaded to your computer or mobile device when you access certain websites. Most websites you visit will use cookies in order to improve your user experience by enabling that website to ‘remember’ you. Cookies may be set by the website that you are visiting or by other websites that run content on the page that you are viewing.

Cookies can be used by websites to remember information about you so that you don’t have to repeatedly provide that information to them, keep you signed into the website, personalise the adverts and services they offer to you and track your activity on the website as well as collecting location information about you and technical information about the device you are accessing the website from.

How does the hospice use them?

The cookies that the hospice uses are predominantly ‘analytical’ cookies. They allow us to recognise and count the number of visitors to our website and track how you accessed our site and how you move around our site when you’re using it. We can also record information about what country you are accessing our website from as well as technical information like your IP address, device type and operating system.

To do this the hospice website uses Google Analytics. Unless you have adjusted your browser settings to block cookies, they will automatically be created as soon as you access the website. Google Analytics is collected via a JavaScript tag in the pages of our site. Google Analytics uses Persistent Cookies (remain on your computer unless they expire or your cookie cache is cleared) and some session cookies (used to calculate visit information such as visit length and where a visitor arrived from).

More information on Google Analytics and Google’s privacy policy for the system can be found at https://support.google.com/analytics/topic/2919631?hl=en&ref_topic=1008008

Why does the hospice use cookies?

The hospice uses cookies as by monitoring the use of our website we can ensure all of our visitors are able to find the information they require when visiting it. It also allows us to discover what information may be relevant to our visitors and display that more prominently.

The legal basis we rely on to use your data in this way is article 6 (1) (f) of the GDPR which relates to information being processed for the purposes of the legitimate interests of the Ayrshire Hospice and our website visitors.

How do I stop cookies from being stored?

You can prevent your browsing from being tracked generally by adjusting your browser settings, browsing in ‘private mode’ or using browser add-ons. You can find out how to do this by visiting the relevant support page for your browser or by using the help function on your browser.